Table of contents for March/April 2026 in Britain

One of the most defining features of the patchwork of woodland, heath, common grazing and historic villages that makes up the New Forest is that wherever you wander or wherever you drive you are sure to at some point be stopped in your tracks by a pony crossing to munch on a gorse bush, a herd of donkeys ambling home, deer cantering to safety or even, perhaps, a pig or two. That’s because this English national park is one of Britain’s rare landscapes where medieval law still guides how the land is lived in and used, and the animals here have right of way. Despite the name, the New Forest is anything but new. In 1079, William the Conqueror declared this swathe of Hampshire a royal hunting ground – his…

It is 8 February 1587, “two hours after midnight”, and Mary, Queen of Scots sits writing in her prison at (now-vanished) Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. Her missive, addressed to King Henri III of France, a younger brother of her late first husband François II, will be the last known letter she will write. Its contents, both shocking and poignant, give an intimate insight into her character and state of mind. “Tonight, after dinner, I have been advised of my sentence: I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning,” Mary writes with brutal matter-of-factness. Six hours later she is indeed beheaded, aged just 44, having been convicted of treason for involvement in the Babington Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. Mary’s last letter, which passed through…

“I didn’t know this existed,” I puff, hurrying into the foyer of a small green building tucked around the corner from the Bletchley Park Visitors’ Centre, precisely an hour before closing time. Like most visitors, I’ve come to see the iconic huts where a group of brilliant codebreakers helped change the course of the Second World War. This much newer building, home to the RSGB National Radio Centre (NRC) since 2012, is dedicated to the hobby of amateur radio. It’s often the last to be visited, and its location here at Bletchley frequently puzzles visitors – after all, what has amateur radio got to do with wartime code breaking? I’m about to find out. Martyn Baker, NRC Coordinator, directs my attention to an intriguing display of 1940s memorabilia, including vintage…

Stately Burley Manor sits at the heart of the New Forest National Park, overlooking the red deer sanctuary, where towering trees, big skies and roaming ponies set the scene. Enter our new competition to win a restorative break for two at this luxury rural retreat. Burley Manor, along with Bartley Lodge, Forest Lodge and the Beaulieu Hotel, is a member of the New Forest Hotels collection of characterful hotels, all in beautiful forest settings, with gardens and grounds to wander, comfortable bedrooms, welcoming lounges and generous country hospitality. Housed within a beautifully restored former hunting lodge, Burley Manor combines period charm with contemporary comfort. Interiors are calm and elegant, with natural textures, thoughtful details and an easy, relaxed feel throughout. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame ever-changing forest views, while the peaceful atmosphere…

“Such splendour I had never seen before and may never see again,” wrote Sir Norman Hartnell, favoured fashion designer of the late Queen Elizabeth II, of the 1953 Coronation in his autobiography, Silver and Gold. “The Abbey is wearing Coronation draperies of blue brocade. Along its aisle spreads a seamless carpet of cerulean blue, changing at the Theatre’s steps to a warm shade of pale honey … from my privileged seat in the Queen’s Box I can see every happening and every arrival. Soon I shall be seeing the dress I have made, being worn by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second for her Crowning.” And what a dress it was. Sweeping satin and with ornate golden beading, the cloth depicted, at the future Queen’s insistence, every emblem of the…

Viewing Castle Howard for the first time, the writer and politician Horace Walpole waxed lyrical in 1772: “I have seen gigantic places before, but never a sublime one.” Famous today as a film and TV setting (notably in Brideshead Revisited and Bridgerton), the Howard family home near York is among England’s most iconic country houses, the bravura Baroque creation all the more extraordinary for having been designed by an architectural novice. But then, John Vanbrugh was an extraordinary man. Throughout this tercentenary year of Vanbrugh’s death, ‘Vanbrugh 300’, presented by The Georgian Group, celebrates his remarkable career, with events and exhibitions taking place at half a dozen of the architect’s most significant buildings (discover more at Vanbrugh300.co.uk). Baptised on 24 January 1664, John Vanbrugh was the son of Giles Vanbrugh,…

When Henry II created the Tudor Rose at the end of the Wars of the Roses, it was so successful that it became an emblem of England itself Since the 1690s, the arrival of spring at Hampton Court Palace has been heralded by tulips, splashing their vibrant colour around the historic royal gardens and dispelling all memory of the grey gloom of winter. They were a favourite flower of Queen Mary II, joint sovereign with her husband William III in that closing decade of the 17th century, and particularly partial to fresh-cut tulips dotted liberally around her apartments. Mary is often overlooked as a bit-part player in the royal succession story – the daughter who took the throne wrested from her Catholic father King James II in the ‘Glorious Revolution’…

This little county at England’s heart offers an unexpected richness, with market towns, country pubs and stately homes galore Egland’s smallest county is easy to miss on the map. Wedged between Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Rutland barely registers at first glance. But true to its motto, Multum in parvo (‘much in little’), this little county at England’s heart offers an unexpected richness. Georgian market towns, art galleries, historic churches, welcoming country pubs and an exceptional concentration of stately homes are all packed into its serene landscapes. Steeped in centuries of history and retaining a somewhat sleepy charm, Rutland sits well off the tourist trail: an ideal place to explore England’s heritage in peace. Our Rutland tour begins in Oakham, the county town, whose history stretches back to Saxon times. Its…